Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Fake News

The fact summit wouldn’t be a censorship body; nor would it actively engage in fact-checking activities. Its goal would be to act as a set of informal gatekeepers, determining which institutions are worthy of citation, linking, reading and supporting, while also calling out the fakers and deceivers. The multi-partisan nature of the panel would add legitimacy to the findings and encourage consumers on the right and left to take the results more seriously. Would it convince everyone? Not a chance in hell. There will always be hotheads who cling to their bogus news and conspiracy theory stories, and those who will continue to blindly retweet unsourced garbage. But it’s an important start, an urgent attempt at forcibly shoving the pendulum in the other direction.

I see why this is an issue, but the fake news we're seeing on social media is just a more advanced version of your crazy uncle's e-mail forwards that we've had for 20 years.